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***
It seems sunny and bright, but Gotham is still a gloomy and depressing town. Everywhere you go, there are smoke stacks, the stench of sewage, and clouds looking down on you. Everywhere Will went, he was accompanied by antique cars, rusting, airborne exhausts, brandishing and maliciously splashing dirt. The darlings at the curb are surly, but made to last. There are no holes anywhere and nothing is falling apart - in short, it's pleasant to walk. But with the sewage system... somehow everything is unclear.
Willard stepped over a black puddle that smelled of gasoline and grimaced. He was walking toward Gotham's Old Man, a sort of unremarkable kiosk in the ass end of the neighborhood. Behind him or in front of him were people in business coats, hats and all, like an old-timey Bats cartoon with a flashy screen saver playing. The city was bustling with life, and it was huge, so huge that Will even cheered up - there was everything here, from flashy high-rise buildings to dubious establishments where people lost their money, or even their lives. The latter was in the "shady neighborhoods," but known only from Kara's words.
Will bought a hotdog, tasty, juicy, gave the guy some money and went on his way. There was a certain charm to the gloominess of Gotham, the people here lived well, dressed well, the women here - wow, look at them, all in tights or stockings, in hats, businesslike. Some walked in dresses. In the center people mostly moved by car or cab. There were a lot of hotels built here, and all sorts of businessmen came out to the limousines in expensive jackets and escorted by security guards.
In short, the atmosphere was good, businesslike. You feel yourself among the elite of society somehow important and even fun. Like, an ordinary guy won't be lost here, and even though Will has a lot of money in his karma (and it's only a scholarship!). However, if he tells anyone that the scholarship is from Bruce Wayne, he will be immediately eaten up by reporters and envious stares.
As Will walked along the gloomy roads, a thought crossed his mind.
"How do I feel about Bruce's money...? Grateful, respectful, I guess."
It's hard not to respect the Bats at all. The man is kind and good, but also tough and cool.
What to do with his money, which Will hadn't earned in any way... that was another matter. The money was mostly in his bank account, and he didn't touch it. There was a lot of money there, almost half of the apartment, and he didn't even have a hand in the accumulation - the money fell into the account for the past achievements of "that Will".
It's nice to realize that you have a lot of money in your account and every month you get more money on your card. So already half of the apartment has fallen in just six months, and that's in the worst case. And that's when my nerves started to fray, because "WHY THE HELL IS BRUCE GIVING SO MUCH?!"
It's not clear at once, but I had to keep myself in control, so as not to do anything unnecessary.
Kara liked to throw her money away - she walked past a display case with a teddy bear and her head was blown off. She wanted to buy one, so she got two and some other funky shit.
When asked why you need this useless shit (politely though), she replied: "Because it's cool and cute! Look at that!" - then shoved the plush creature in her face and smiled sweetly. What do you do with that? It's cute, but it's not the bear, it's Kara. And Kara's out of touch, so I can't get ahold of her. I bought it.
And if you argue, she'll throw a tantrum and say that you don't love her and you're fucked at home, you'd better run away. What are we going to choose, comrade?
Anyway, Will had to save money for the two of them. Typical, yeah. But there wasn't much point in worrying, because the money wasn't really his. More like Will's. Not Kirill Drozdov's. Well, he didn't earn it with his own hands, he just took it from what he was given for his past achievements (not his achievements).
Well, that's how the money saved up. Will became the master of the coin in their "young family" while Kara desperately stormed the purse strings. Once she'd bought a miniature packet of souffles, with cute pink modrashki and a price tag of a kosar, if you translated it into Russian rubles... Will's eyes had gone dark and he'd started to squint.
He doesn't care if he takes thirty of them a month! It's his heart that can't bear to spend so much. Damn it! When you look at the big price tag, your palms sweat and your legs shake.
Will tried to avoid the big price tag himself, and he gave Kara a break, because Will and Bruce were almost like family, and since they were, Kara had every right to do what she wanted. In the future, you can somehow buy Kara an apartment and live like a real housewife. Maybe even in the center of Gotham, because there was everything here - eateries at every turn, clothes, clubs, and so on.
It's nice, of course, that the neighborhood is gated, relatively safe. Everyone's rich and hip, some of them even walk their dogs. It's nice.
Yes, and when this luxurious life has fallen from the sky on his shoulders, not to lose your head is your main task. It's easy in theory - live and don't kick, but in reality thousands of facts poke at you day in and day out, and you don't know what to do with them. That study, that superheroic pranks fly over your head, then think about the future (and even not his). In short, the headache is unreal, and you breathe easy, do not panic - only the third month.
There were, of course, insidious thoughts of taking Bats's money, buying a house, living with Kara like a real baron in a couple of years, when they both finished their studies, and then go away, leaving the house and all the good things to Kara.
To leave because it wasn't his life, it was someone else's.
But here Will quickly besieged himself, because he was definitely not going to get away with playing dumb for a couple years.
"Thinking is not for me at all. As long as I'm using other people's stuff, at least I'll be able to cook and take care of Kara, since she can't even clean up after herself," he thought as he took the bucks to the ATM.
Then I went to the old man's store in Gotham, because the noodles here were a couple of bucks cheaper than in any supermarket, and the familiar smell of simplicity hit my nose. The food was lying on the shelves as it was, but the quality was as good as fucked-up pasta from the blatant stores.
"Here it is, the Gold Mine!!!"
I had to walk a shitload of streets, but that's okay. The grandmothers somehow manage when they go to the other side of town for a carton of milk, which is 2 rubles cheaper than the milk at home.
Will confidently picked up the basket and tossed in pasta, greens and sauces. And every price tag is well worth it - a couple penny US dollars! Considering the large wallet, this place with Bruce's money feels almighty!
And when he'd shopped properly, he went to the cash register and began to think about what kind of dinner he could have to make up with Kara. She'd been mad at him lately, and now she couldn't help herself. So he'd have to have a nice dinner... with lots of candy and maybe buy her a toy on the way. I mean, it's gonna hurt her pocketbook, but her life's more important.
As Will walked toward the cash register, his senses suddenly sharpened, as if a pressure had hit him in the temple. Something unkind was in the air, and this unkindness could be compared to a sudden rain and darkness in the middle of a white day. Will immediately glanced outside through the window and spotted the man.
The man was strange at least because he ran into the store with a black sock on his head. He was like a gangster in a leather jacket, eyes blazing, black gloves on his hands. Will froze at the newspaper stand and took a couple steps backward. That's when my goggle clenched, and I smelled something wrong.
The man with the sock looked around and, sticking his hand into his jacket, pulled out a gun, which he immediately pointed at the poor salesman. That's when it all started, panic spread through the store like a sound wave. The fat woman in the red dress first walked importantly by Will, and in a second fell to the floor, spread her legs, and squealed like a bitch. Then there was panic and screaming from all sides, and a single EXPLOSION into the ceiling shut everyone up.
«Everybody shut up! - growled the bandit.
There was a tense silence.
Fear gripped everyone, but for Will, it wasn't the kind of fear that made you freeze and shiver, but the kind that sent blood rushing through your veins and sharpened your focus. Tense as needed, alert, ass "in tone" - full charge.
"And I knew it from the beginning, didn't I? Knew I'd end up in this asshole one day," Will tensed.
He calmly lurked and waited," I wondered, "Why the fuck are you so calm, kid? You've been panicking for two chapters!
Will didn't know why the bandit was looming in front of him, but he didn't give a shit, calm as a boa constrictor. Even when the shot rang out, his heart remained calm, only his breathing became quieter. He also had a strange feeling that if the bandit pointed a gun at him, he wouldn't be able to do a damn thing.
"Hmm... how odd."
It was as if his own feelings were playing a dangerous game with him. You couldn't fight a bandit with a gun with ordinary strength, but how ordinary was Will?
While Will was sorting out his new sensations, the bastard kept shaking his gun at the poor cashier who was stuffing the dough into the bag. There was fear in the cashier's eyes and the question, "well why the fuck did I deserve all this!". I felt sorry for the guy, ordinary, unremarkable - you look at him and you can't tell him from yourself, but he was too young. All the future was ahead of him.
"Or not, that depends. If he gets shot in the head now, it's no laughing matter," Will imagined the bastard putting a gun to his throat if he tried to hit him from behind.
A repeat of Thomas Wayne's fate was possible in three, two, one ....
Will pushed the bullshit idea out of his head. Why the fuck did he think the criminal would have time to put a muzzle to his throat if Will felt like he had to beat him? Feelings were playing a cruel and incomprehensible trick on him.
There's a pretty good chance you're gonna get blown off at the start of rebirth. No man in his right mind would go up against a gangster in Gotham City - a stray bullet and you're in a coffin.
You're either in and you have to get out, lucky you escape, unlucky you die like a cattle. Death at arm's length. And dying here and now meant the end of a happy life with Kara. Besides, he'd never told her he wasn't the real Will.
Will's heart clenched.
"She should know."
Yeah, the world he'd been brought into was a shithole. You could fall off any day, and the three months he'd lived in it were lucky to stay in the house.
Sure, maybe it wasn't that bad, people lived somehow, but they hadn't seen what Will saw in the comics and cartoons. People died in packs for literally nothing. It's good for them to live in ignorance, but poor Will now had a thousand unfavorable episodes looming in front of his eyes. It's easy to become paranoid.
There were the thugs who "went to the store" on weekdays (there's one right in front of him. It's still morning, asshole!), there was the impulsive super-wife who could rip his dick off during sex, and who he was afraid to have sex with because she could cripple him, (no joke, Will once found a picture of him lying in the hospital with a broken tailbone, and was like "Oh!" like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme. Finally found proof! Ha ha ha! Only when Will showed this picture to Cara, she somehow got suspiciously off topic!). Case in point:
"Hey baby, what's that picture?"
"And you don't remember yourself, do you?" - And she lowered her eyes in embarrassment.
"It slipped my mind. Remind me?"
And Kara flew away. Will ran out onto the balcony and threatened:
«Where to?! I can't fly! - He shouted, and then exhaled and added, "If you're flying, buy some milk! But don't pretend you can't hear - you have super hearing!
So Will sat behind the counter and waited quietly for the smoky-voiced, nosy-headed asshole to take his money and get the fuck out. But the bastard decided to turn around and take a pack of cigarettes from the counter.
«What are you looking at, asshole?
"You're an asshole," Will thought.
Willard averted his gaze and tried to look at the bastard out of the corner of his eye, "fuck off, I'm not scorching."
And it's kind of sick to my stomach, like, "Why the fuck am I letting him do this? Why don't I just fuck him?"
The plan worked, and the gangster lost interest in Will. And then the alarm went off (the stupid salesman decided to activate it), and then the asshole salesman got shot in the forehead in a matter of minutes.
«Fucking asshole, why'd you do that? Fuck! - while the bandit was walking around swearing and threatening everyone with death, a car with a blinker pulled up to the store and was like, "Wee-wee-wee-wee, bitch, you're in deep shit."
The bandit shakily began to look around the store and came across Will. It was hard to tell who was in more trouble, the vigilante or Will, because it just kept getting worse:
«Surrounded, bitches. FUCK! Hey, you, come here! Now, before I put a hole in you! - he growled, turning to Willard.
You could see his hands shaking. That the bastard hadn't intentionally swatted the cashier, and Will might be next.
"Trouble," Will thought to himself as he slowly approached the bandit.
Meanwhile, a current ran through his body, and his flesh heated up unruly, as if the adrenaline had given him more than enough of a charge. His blood boiled, and his muscles tensed as if some mysterious change was taking place in him. That is, his arms and legs literally began to burn and tingle, and his heart beat fast and sure. Blood rushed through my veins with hot magma, and I felt dizzy. And all these phenomena, if they seemed to Will like a fever, began to change his perception in a mysterious way after a couple of seconds.
The surroundings froze and abruptly continued their course, but in a different way, more like a measured flow, the sounds, including passing cars outside the store, became clearer, and my vision, even lateral, began to catch the smallest details in other people's movements. The position of his fingers reflexively changed to something confident and familiar, and resembled readiness for an extremely quick and deadly blow. And all these changes were happening too quickly. It wasn't due to the slowing of time, but rather Will had time to do and notice more in the same second as before.
Unable to focus on the changes due to the gun criminal in front of his eyes, Will continued to slowly step towards meeting his own death.
It seemed so, but the sensations told a different story. Will was starting to get angry at the world, and at himself first of all.
He stood across from the bandit and looked at him closely. Right now he could see a lot of his weaknesses, and his movements seemed slow to Willard.
"Come to think of it, I can catch Kara sometimes too," but here he lied.
There had only been one time he'd caught Kara, and that was when she'd run out of the bathtub at superspeed - scared of a rat. Yeah, sometimes Kara got weird, and then it was like this: Kara ran out naked, and Will was reading the paper and caught her by her bare, wet ass, and pinned her specifically before she broke through the only TV on it.
It's hard to say how it happened. It was either a coincidence or the plasma almost went in the trash for a shitload of money! - Jew instincts, all that. Or sometimes you get lucky and you do a weird, cool thing. Or since Will has lived with Kara for so long, he's somehow gotten used to her "super speeds" when she was running like Flash on minimums? Nah, that's crazy. Only in real life.
«Hands up, asshole! - gun at his throat, tense.
Will held up his hands.
"Now calm down..."
***
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